across the fireflies' path
by Aiko Isari
Summary: NEXT. Tsurugi always knew his childhood friend's tendency to not suffer injustice was a good and bad thing, one he took pride in creating. But when he's asked to find his missing friend, he and the others have to define injustice for themselves.


_Warning for dystopia, violence committed against a minor, child soldiers,_ propaganda _, interseason, past war._

* * *

 _ **Chapter One - A Wanted Poster**_

If the world was split in two, where all the good and all the bad lived on their own sides, there would be no progress because successes and failures would also be split in two. Since that wasn't possible, everything was fragmented further and further until nothing did anything but be one of many.

The city of Crest was small, one of many. It was upper-class but it was one of many. A lot of the time, wrongdoings simply occurred among the population. They had enforcers to clean that up, so was it a great issue? Quite possibly. The punishment was never too harsh, but it was a deterrent nevertheless. All in all, it was a normal neighborhood, a safe place to live.

For a young man out late at night, however, tonight might be the day for a very harsh, very unusual punishment. I might be the first time that he didn't care. Still, he kept running, ignoring the unsteady beating of his heart, the significant lack of air in his lungs.

His lifeline danced around his neck, screen alight in the darkness. He curled his fingers around it, to shield it from what could come.

 _"Master."_ The voice from the speaker was clipped, full of discomfort. _"You must hurry to a higher point. Otherwise, we will not get anywhere."_

The boy did not manage to dignify his companion with an answer. Instead, he threw himself forward in ungainly leaps. As he did, he heard rapid little pings followed by a singular loud crack. Like the whip.

He quickly corrected himself. A gun. A really crappy gun. Bullets are supposed to _pop._ Maybe it wasn't for bullets.

Another crack resounded, this one much closer to his ears. The boy dodged, panic mounting as he made another jump.

He reached the hanging ladder of a fire escape, hearing the whispers and the shouts and having to pay them no heed and just focus on _getting out_ of the sprawling metropolis. Unfortunately that nearly ended as something jabbed like a rough finger into his thigh. He bit his lip to muffle the sound of pain and threw himself up again on his arms, climbing up and through the blood and the pain and-

His hand slipped. He scrambled with the other and nearly lost it from the slippery sweat on his palms. With a grunt, he threw his hand up and continued to climb.

The gunshots had died down. They had woken the citizens, and, he presumed, were going to risk hitting them if they kept firing like that. He couldn't help his smile. THey were almost on even footing, in that aspect.

"Peck, get ready," he murmured, reaching the top of the building.

 _"I am, master."_

Kahara Shou breathed in the night air, feeling the squirm of the precious cargo on his back. "We're almost there." Unlike these words, he didn't whisper but spoke them with dangerous confidence.

It was a lie, of course. They weren't even close to a shelter. But that was all right. As long as the cargo believed, they would be safe. Besides, they were so close. And it was time.

Blood was sticky on his leg but he didn't care, not now. He turned himself to move with the wind. Then he raised his arms, right in tune to the sound of a helicopter. Shou smiled to himself.

"Hey Tsurugi," he said to the air. "Look at me."

He wouldn't of course. He had forgotten everything, the promise and what it meant, the friend they had made. But Shou hadn't, and this was what it led to.

"Mu program initiate," he said over the roaring and opening of windows. "DigiSoul Charge!"

Peck's voice, ever low, intoned without missing a beat. "Soul accepted. Initiating Bird."

His back burned hot as a poker, lines digging into his back dangerously close to his ribs as the hexagon took form. The symbol beneath it flared.

The police opened fire.

Shou grinned once more and took off into the wind.

* * *

Tatsuno Tsurugi woke up in his home to the smell of fried eggs and the sound of his work phone vibrating on the floor. Wiping drool from his face, he sat up in a slow roll. The phone continued to buzz in annoyance and he wanted to swear at it. Unfortunately, his mother was downstairs. Between her and Ami, a curse word would deny him a nice peaceful morning. Besides, if his phone was actually going off, something interesting had to be going down. Tsurugi couldn't help but grin at the blade hanging on his other wall. Ceremonial though it may be, it sure had given him a lot of luck.

His excitement was cut off by the loud banging of a pan and spoon. Tsurugi jumped out of bed and towards his clothes. He was not going to get a wooden spoon to the head again. Or a brush, or anything. Ami was fond of her thickly bristled brush.

Thankfully, by the time she made it to his room, she found him fully dressed, third-year uniform reluctantly tidy on his stocky frame. He waved at her from the safety and comfort of his bed, hands raised to block.

"Morning, Ami." He sounded sheepish like his sharp ears hadn't heard her coming. Judging by the arch of her left eyebrow, she didn't believe him either. Damn.

Still, her raised shoulders lowered slowly and she frowned, putting down her brush. "Morning." She smiled after a moment. "You slept well."

Tsurugi hopped off the bed, grabbing his phone at last, along with his assigned Digital toy. He hooked the latter to his belt. "Don't I always?" He glanced at the sword left hanging on the wall. Then, deliberately, he looked away. "Your brother downstairs?"

"Yep." She relaxed a little more and Tsurugi felt himself smile all the wider. "Thanks again for your mom being… your mom."

"We're neighbors!" He led the way down the stairs. "If we don't look after each other, who will?" They were going to stay neighbors as long as Tsurugi had anything to say about it, and as long as his father's

He could feel Ami rolling her eyes.

Greymon, in his pet, beeped to be fed. Tsurugi wanted to groan but then his own stomach let out a snarl worthy of a true outlaw.

Ami burst into laughter, the sound carrying them down the stairs even as she looked slowly exasperated as the sounds just didn't go away.

"I'm surprised the petty thieves don't hear that."

Tsurugi tried not to be embarrassed by checking his phone, still studiously avoiding what had made it go off. He didn't even know why he was. Just seeing that little number one made his stomach churn. After a second of looking too long, he asked, "Have you heard from Shou?"

Ami shook her head as she sat down at the table, wiping Taku's face with a napkin. "Nope. He's supposed to be on his first long-term outside of Crest still though, isn't he?"

Tsurugi made a face. "Yeah. He is. If he wasn't _two months ahead_ , I could have gone too."

"Then we'd have to worry about both of you from behind the desk."

Tsurugi blushed again and fed Greymon. "Yeah… I guess." He put his hands behind his head. "He'll just have to tell me all about it." if he would. THey had gone into Sweeper training _together_ , after all. That hadn't stopped the final member of the three of them to suddenly go quiet and distant. As he leaped ahead in training games. He had hoped that after Shou got back, they could just talk. Play with their Digimon toys. That sort of thing. Fun.

But looking at that very simple 'invitation' (and it wasn't an invitation, kids were required to take these courses since the age of seven when they had gotten used to going to school), Tsurugi didn't think that would happen for a while.

He smiled it off to himself. Oh well. Things would work out. They always did.

* * *

The school day began wrong.

Rather like the phone calls at absurd hours, school started with an assembly run by the police of their tiny Japanese city. Their principal sat sweating in his plastic chair, flanked by young soldier after soldier of the Sweepers. The fact that they seemed intentionally named after a manga mercenary organization never failed to make Tsurugi smile a little until training make him squirm in pain.

 _Because children need to be soldiers._

His mother's voice in his head always wiped off the rest of it. But he returned it quickly. He was a Sweeper apprentice. They were always better off, more money, more prestige, a louder voice once they survived their term. So were their families.

Besides, the time where Japan could restrict their weapons use to adults and a pretend not military was over. The other world had seen to that.

Unconsciously, he gripped his toy.

Digimon had been tamed. That was the truth.

He glanced at Ami, who stood ramrod straight in her own uniform, staring at her command officer as she rose up to the podium. The woman's long hair was tied up so tight they could see the veins in her face and the mic communicator in her ear. Her steel grey eyes swept the neat lines of people before she spoke.

"Good morning, young students. For those of you who may not know of me, my name, without ranking is Takahiro Katya, stationed here in 2032 during the restoration from the DIgital World attacks in 1999, 2002, and the ensuing wars from 2005 until 2027. I was a little girl at the time of these battles, covered by many other little girls and boys much like yourself."

No one made a sound. They knew the timeline, and those who didn't were desperate to pretend they did and save face.

"When the Chosen Ones fought, they left behind a great legacy," the woman continued. "And terrible destruction. For the sake of their names left eternally MIA, we continue to heal from their cause and carry it. Of all the districts in Tokyo, Light, your own, has increased in creating more sweepers, guardians on the future."

A pause and in that pause there was a sense of nausea and dread. Tsurugi considered puking or at the very least, rubbing water from his eyes.

Her eyes wandered over them again, rested on Ami and then, for a fleeting second on him. Then, Katya continued. "A student on his long-term apprenticeship, Kahara Shou, has disappeared en route in the city of Crest, the midpoint between here and the other world. His last message was informing us of a mission continuing as planned despite minor setbacks. If there is anyone who can assist us in some way prior to assignment, we must ask you to step forward during today's free period. It is our duty to preserve any young life we can."

Tsurugi's phone felt very hot, but not as much as the fearful warmth around his eyes.

"Furthermore." She ignored the whispers, the widening eyes, how formation was shattering. "The NEO Project is pleased to announce that it has finally made a successful candidate. To any who are struggling to support the growth of your home, we are inviting you to take a chance at improving your health and your family's security."

Through the red poker feeling in his eyes and throat, Tsurugi saw Ami, already pale, touching her chest. And she saw the woman's eyes looking at her once more. And this time, she wasn't looking away.

The name of the project felt familiar but right now he couldn't care. His best friend was gone. And now he knew what that message was for.

* * *

 _ **A/N:**_ I'm not gonna lie, Symbiosis influenced this a lot. So let's run with it shall we? Time for a long NEXT fic.

Challenges: Epic Masterclass (Manga) 3, AU diversity boot camp -orange, season rewrite boot camp prompt-minister, digiotpweek day five, mangaverse boot camp - crown, Mega Prompts word prompt - imminent, three-sided box challenge


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